Were There Other Nephite Survivors Besides Moroni?

Have you ever noticed how Mesoamericanists like to alter the meaning of, or the clear-cut messages of, the scriptural record? Take, as an example, the final battle between the Nephites and Lamanites, which ended the Nephite nation and exterminated every single Nephite except for Moroni.

After the final battle, Moroni writes about he being the last Nephite alive, “The Lamanites have hunted my people, the Nephites, down from city to city and from place to place, even until they are no more; and great has been their fall” (Moroni 8:7)
    It was Moroni himself who wrote of this: “and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. But behold, they are gone, and I fulfil the commandment of my father….for I am alone” (Mormon 8:3, 5). 
    John L. Sorenson, the guru of Mesoamerican Theorists, would have us believe differently, however, that large numbers of Nephites survived. He writes:
    “Were there Nephites left after that battle? Some, yes. The scripture makes that clear. Only they were no longer called Nephites. Mormon noted that "a few...had escaped into the south countries, and a few...had dissented over unto the Lamanites" (Mormon 6:15). Naturally, large numbers of people of Nephite descent had never consented to flee their lands in the first place (Mormon 2:7-8), but had switched their allegiance rather than move out (Moroni 1:2).  Mormon observed to his son that "many of our brethren have dissented over unto the Lamanites" (Mormon 9:24).”
    Before we accept Sorenson's statements, perhaps we should look up his citings and see what the scriptural record actually says.  Mormon writes that a few escaped into the south and a few dissented. But what happened to these escapees and dissenters? First of all, Mormon did not know the fate of those who had escaped into the south countries when he wrote this. However, a few years later, Moroni fills in this blank when he wrote: “After the great and tremendous battle at Cumorah, behold, the Nephites who had escaped into the country southward were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed” (Mormon 8:2 emphasis mine). "Until they were all destroyed" seems pretty clear and needs no further explanation by us or Sorenson.
    What about Sorenson's other references? 
•  Mormon 2:7-8 does not say that Nephites had refused to leave their lands as he infers—it describes the widespread revolution between Nephites, Lamanites and the Gaddianton robbers.
•  Moroni 1:2 does not say "large numbers switched their allegiance rather than move out" as he claims. The scripture says, speaking of the Lamanites that "that whatsoever lands we had passed  by, and the inhabitants thereof were not gathered in, were destroyed by the Lamanites, and their towns, and villages, and cities were burned with fire" (Mormon 5:5). Again, this is very clear and needs no further comment.

•  Mormon 9:24—this is an incorrect reference—he means Moroni 9:24, who is repeating the words of his father from a letter Mormon wrote him much earlier than Cumorah, which does state that many Nephites had and would dissent over to the Lamanites.  But nowhere does it say "large numbers" as Sorenson claims. 

    Actually, some, if not all of these were killed in that final battle (Mormon 6:15) or were hunted down and killed (Mormon 8:2).  Moroni makes this perfectly clear when he writes: “I say no more concerning them, for there are none save it be the Lamanites and robbers that do exist upon the face of the land” (Mormon 8:9). That is, there were none anywhere on the face of the land of the Land of Promise other than himself, Lamanites and Robbers--the Nephites had all been destroyed and no longer existed.
    Again, Mormon, writing prior to the final battle, outlines that many Nephites had dissented over to the Lamanites (Moroni 9:24). However, since Moroni shows that all those who dissented in the time of these final battles were killed outright or hunted down and killed, any Nephite dissenters who survived the purge would have been those who dissented much earlier in Nephite history (Alma 47:35; 63:14) becoming more vicious than the Lamanites (Alma 47:36), and also in (12 B.C.) and were thereafter called Lamanites (Helaman 11:24; 4:3-4) or robbers (Helaman 11:26; 3 Nephi 1:28). Obviously, there were those who did not go with Mosiah to Zarahemla around 200 B.C., and there were Amlicites, Zoramites, and others that made this switch, for Mormon speaks in the past tense of those who had gone over to the Lamanites (Moroni 9:24). 

They were, in fact, called Lamanites from that point on (Alma 3:4; compare Alma 3:13-13-17), though they carried the Nephite blood within their veins, allowing Mormon to know that in the last days, both Nephites and Lamanites would be the future readers of the Book of Mormon record. As to those that Mormon said would dissent, Moroni closes the book on these some twenty years later by saying they were hunted down and killed.
    Thus, it cannot be said, as Sorenson insists, and several other Theorists agree, that various Nephites survived the last battle and their descendants now walk among us. Moroni tells us that: “after the great and tremendous battle at Cumorah, behold, the Nephites who had escaped into the country southward were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed. And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. But behold, they are gone, and I fulfil the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not” (Mormon 8:2-3 emphasis mine).
    Moroni makes it clear that there are no more Nephites—only himself! Not only the Nephite Nation was annihilated, but every Nephite was killed in the final 63 years of wars with the Lamanites that ended at Cumorah. Some Nephites escaped from that battle and fled into the south countries, but as Moroni tells us, they were all tracked down by the Lamanites and killed.
    Yet Sorenson would have us believe that not all the Nephites were killed. In fact, he claims that large numbers of Nephites did not agree to flee with Mormon and his armies at all as they retreated ever northward. Sorenson states: “Naturally, large numbers of people of Nephite descent had never consented to flee their lands in the first place (Mormon 2:7-8), but had switched their allegiance rather than move out (Moroni 1:2). But Mormon, who was there, tells this quite differently for in 380 A.D.:
    “In the three hundred and eightieth year the Lamanites did come again against us to battle, and we did stand against them boldly; but it was all in vain, for so great were their numbers that they did tread the people of the Nephites under their feet. And it came to pass that we did again take to flight, and those whose flight was swifter than the Lamanites' did escape, and those whose flight did not exceed the Lamanites' were swept down and destroyed” (Mormon 5:6-7 emphasis mine). This seems quite clear. Mormon also tells us that the Lamanites swept through these towns and villages that Mormon and his army quit, killing everyone that did not flee with Mormon and his army. He put it this way:

“Whatsoever lands we had passed by, and the inhabitants thereof were not gathered in, were destroyed by the Lamanites, and their towns, and villages, and cities were burned with fire” (Mormon 5:5). So while Sorenson can claim from his 20^th century office that “large numbers of Nephites did not agree to join the fight,” Mormon, from his on-the-spot vantage point tells us that those Nephites who did not join the flight of he and his army, were all killed by the Lamanites and their towns, villages and cities were all burned with fire.”
    In fact, Mormon tells us that the bloodbath and butchery of these Nephites by the Lamanites was so horrible to witness, that he wrote: “I, Mormon, do not desire to harrow up the souls of men in casting before them such an awful scene of blood and carnage as was laid before mine eyes” (Mormon 5:8).
    Obviously, the murderous, unrestrained brutality of the Lamanites’ thirst for the blood of the Nephites was so vicious and all consuming that they killed every Nephite they could find, even tracking down a few who escaped and killing them. Even after every Nephite had been destroyed, Moroni still feared for his life;

He was an eye-witness to this savage barbarity that led to continual murder and ferocious civil war for “the Lamanites are at war one with another; and the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed; and no one knoweth the end of the war” (Mormon 8:8). 36 years later, Moroni tells us these civil wars were still going on: “For behold, their wars are exceedingly fierce among themselves” (Moroni 1:2).
    At the conclusion of these 63 years of wars, Mormon tells us that “when three hundred and eighty and four years had passed away, we had gathered in all the remainder of our people unto the land of Cumorah” (Mormon 6:5—emphasis mine). And Moroni makes it quite clear that every Nephite was dead when he wrote: “the Lamanites have hunted my people, the Nephites, down from city to city and from place to place, even until they are no more” (Mormon 8:7—emphasis mine).
    It is amazing that Sorenson and others can, in light of this very clear language, claim a contrary situation where “large numbers of Nephites” were not killed simply because they did not agree to join in the fight. It would be an interesting conversation between Moroni, who saw that they were all killed, and Sorenson, and other Mesoamericanists, who insists they were not.